The health risks from exposure to hazardous wastes, and to hazardous substances in general, are real. This is why the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force the Department to carry out the congressional mandate in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund),¹ and why it has supported new proposals that seek to ensure that victims of toxic exposure will be compensated. I would first like to address the CERCLA §104(i) litigation. The remainder of my remarks will focus on the health hazards of toxic exposure.

Section 104(i) is the provision of CERCLA that required HHS to set up an agency to perform health studies on environmental exposure to toxic substances, exclusive of the workplace. The studies were not to be limited to hazardous waste sites.Adequate funding from the Superfund was not provided to establish the agency. We filed suit in December 1982 to force compliance to establish a centralized agency responsible for collecting information on the health effects of hazardous substances.